The whole operation is compromised!
Ya think?, they transacted the sale of the same stolen domain, not once, but twice! First to Mike Han, then to James Booth, but at least Mr. Han got his 19K back, minus the Escrow fees, which is absurd in itself, paying fees to have people try and steal money from you! James has the domain minus 26K and Rebecca has nothing! No domain and no 26K, and that is just not right!
Unfortunately, I'm still not sure if Rebecca
@spoiltrider even realizes this was actually two fraudulent sales instead of just one. The first to Mr. Han for 19K which is the Escrow.com screenshot she posted that she wasn't a party to, but was sent by Escrow.com when they realized they transacted 2 fraudulent transactions for the same domain! The second was the Booth transaction for 25K plus fees (26K) that she probably doesn't have any record of whatsoever. All of Rebeccas accounts, emails, phone numbers were changed by the thief using info from the Yahoo email hack. The thief rerouted and answered emails, phone calls etc. to trick Mr. Booth into believing his due diligence was complete, which it wasn't, obviously. I'm speculating that James never called Rebeccas cell number from her real estate website, which truly, is the only number the thief hadn't been able to change, and even if Mr. Booth had called the cell number, he never was able to speak to her on that cell number, I assume. James claims he spoke to someone on the phone, which he probably did, but it wasn't Rebecca, it was someone pretending to be her, and was probably the number from the changed whois info that he dialed. Domain thieves rarely change DNS records, as that is what would tip someone off that something wasn't right, when the rightful owner stops receiving email or the website doesn't resolve.
The thief was thorough in his changing of most of Rebeccas accounts to his control using address and names similar to Rebeccas so most people wouldn't notice the changes and so he could manage these fraudulent transactions. The thief went so far as to make fake ID's to submit to Escrow.com, probably using Rebeccas online real estate photo.
So what now? If James won't relinquish the stolen domain, which he probably won't as it's his only bargaining chip, Rebecca has to decide if she wants to work with James and perhaps come to a brokerage agreement where as James could sell the domain and get his 25K back and Rebecca could receive the rest of the profits. Or she could go all in, "Hell hath no fury" style and like any good litigant sue everyone involved in the transaction, Web.com, Escrow.com, Mike Han and James Booth in the hopes of getting her property back and salvaging any profitability once all her legal bills are satisfied.
I truly feel bad for Rebecca and hope she gets her name back, with as little litigation and cost as possible!